Being in the virtual staffing business, we at Team Double-Click? are often asked, ?why should I hire a virtual assistant and how would it benefit me?? The answer is simple: you will save money (nearly 50 percent) and time.
I don?t think it?s any secret that when an employee is in the office 40 hours a week, that they are not actually working all of those hours. They have numerous distractions a day from children and spouses calling to chatting with their coworkers. A study by Basex, a New York research firm, found that office distractions total 2.1 hours a day for the average employee – more than 10 hours and 25 percent of a regular workweek. That doesn?t even take into account the amount of time an employee spends on personal tasks at work. That is time that the employer is paying them for. With virtual staffing, you only pay for the exact amount of time your virtual employee works.

In addition, you don?t pay for office expenses such as utilities, desk, chair, computer, and the office space itself.
Then there are benefits expenses including, vacation time, sick time, and insurance coverage. With virtual staffing, the virtual employee (who is an independent contractor) is responsible for those costs. With a virtual employee, you pay for their hourly rate and reimburse for any costs incurred for the job (mailing costs, etc.)
As you can see from the charts below, hiring a virtual employee is extremely economical for your company.
Wage $15/hour x 40 hr/week = $31,200/year
Social Security (.062 x 31,200) = $1,934/year
Medicare (.0145 x 31,200) = $452/year
Workers comp (.15 x 31,200) = $4,680/year
Sick time 1 week/year = $600/year
Vacation time 2 weeks/year = $1,200/year
Health Insurance Average = $7,800/year
FUTA (.008 x 7,000) = $56/year
Cost of hiring According to Business Week = $3,270/year
Office distractions* = $8,190 per year
Office utilities $300 per month = $3,600/year
Computer Computer for the assistant = $1,000
Desk and chair Modest desk and chair = $700
Add?l phone line Phone line install & monthly charges = $1,300
Office space Moderate office $900/month = $10,800/year
Total = $73,782 per year
Or
= $35.47 per hour
*A study by Basex, a New York research firm.
Wage $24.86/hour x 30 hr/week
= $38,782/year

Social Security N/A Independent Contractor = $0
Medicare N/A Independent Contractor = $0
Workers comp N/A Independent Contractor = $0
Sick time N/A Only Pay for Time Worked = $0
Vacation time N/A Only Pay for Time Worked = $0
Health Insurance N/A Independent Contractor = $0
FUTA N/A Independent Contractor = $0
Cost of hiring Team Double-Click? requires no start up payment = $0
Office distractions* Working from home there are no office distractions = $0
Office utilities N/A Independent Contractor – they pay their own utilities = $0
Computer N/A Independent Contractor – they buy their own computer = $0
Desk and chair N/A Independent Contractor – they buy their own desk and chair = $0
Add?l phone line N/A Independent Contractor – they pay for their own phone = $0
Office space N/A working from home = $0
Total = $38,782/year
Or
$18.65/hour
*Workweek is listed as 30 hours because Team Double-Click? only charges for time worked; the Virtual Assistant would still be on call 40 hours.
When all is said and done, you spend nearly double the amount for an in-house employee than for a virtual one.
Time is money. Hire a virtual employee and save on both.

Team Double-Click?We don’t just tell you where you can find a virtual assistant. We assess your needs and match you with one of our highly-skilled and Team Double-Click? trained virtual assistants. Then we monitor and nurture that relationship so you get the most out of hiring virtually. Think of us as your virtual Human Resources department!. To find out More about our virtual assistants and service click on following banner:

Now, there are a couple of ways to go about training your assistant. While your assistant is already a trained administrative professional, you will still need to train her to your specific ways of doing things. Yes, it may take you some time to go through each of the steps, but once you do and she?s off and running you can move on to those things that you have been wanting to get to. If the training is complex or lengthy, consider recording the training call. That way she can go back over her notes and make sure she didn?t miss anything.

Did I say notes? YES! Have your assistant take notes of your training calls, each and every time. At the end of the training, have her type up those notes and email them to you. Go over those notes yourself to make sure she got all the steps and that you didn?t miss anything. This is a good way to also ensure that she understood you correctly. Then have her save that document into a new folder called ?Training Manual?. Each time you go over something new, have her document the training and then again, email you those training notes. These notes are now building a training manual for you and your business.

As a business owner, having a training manual, or a procedures manual is really critical. What if your VA gets sick and you need to bring someone else to fill in? What if down the road you decide you want to add to your staff, virtual or otherwise? Having document training materials will truly make your life easier. So, please take the time to train your assistant properly. It is an investment that will pay off with high returns!

Team Double-Click?The original and still the best:? Team Double-Click?s thorough virtual assistant screening process, outstanding customer service, and innovative approach to virtual staffing has earned the company mentions and features in such esteemed media as Entrepreneur Magazine, Staff Digest, CNN Money, NBC News, and even Woman?s Day magazine.? Team Double-Click? is truly setting the standard for the virtual assistant industry.. To find out More about our virtual assistants and service click on following banner:

As a small or home-based business owner, are you basing your perception of how long a worker stays in a position on your own work history? Yeah, me too. Big mistake. Personally, when I take on a position I intend to stay with it ? I don?t give up. I?ve enjoyed lengthy tenures at my places of employment throughout my career. All except one and that?s a story for later.

What we need to remember though is that everyone is not like us. Especially the current workforce. I mentioned in a previous article (http://www.teamdoubleclick.com/news/free_articles/workingwithnewgeneration.html) that the days of staying in your job for the rest of your life are long gone. As business owners, we tend to forget that and we are frustrated by it.

Let me say it again in this article: A recent study said that the average tenure in a job for Generation Y is 18 months. That?s realistically the max you can expect someone ? anyone, bricks-and-mortar or virtual, to stick with a job. Let?s leave that thought to stew for a while and talk about the ?that depends? I mentioned earlier.

Depends on what?

Knowing what causes people to leave should help you better understand how long a virtual assistant may stay in a position. About 25% of our virtual assistants have been with us and the same clients for well over a year and many more approaching the one year mark. In fact, earlier this year one of our virtual assistants retired from Team Double-Click? and the client she was assigned, after being with him for more than three years.

So when asked ?how long can I expect my virtual assistant to stay with me?. I always say ?It depends. As long as nothing goes wrong and there is no reason for the virtual assistant to leave, she will most likely stay.? As one of my daughter?s teachers used to say, ?It?s all about cause and effect.?

This article?s goal was to give you a better perspective of what to expect in this day and age of hiring and some insight into what can go wrong. I hope I?ve accomplished that. And with a better understanding maybe we?ll all be less shocked and better prepared when one of our workers ? bricks-and-mortar or virtual – departs.

Team Double-Click?The original and still the best:? Team Double-Click?s thorough virtual assistant screening process, outstanding customer service, and innovative approach to virtual staffing has earned the company mentions and features in such esteemed media as Entrepreneur Magazine, Staff Digest, CNN Money, NBC News, and even Woman?s Day magazine.? Team Double-Click? is truly setting the standard for the virtual assistant industry.. To find out More about our virtual assistants and service click on following banner:

As I read a recent copy of Backpacker magazine, the Global Warming issue, I thought about how truly ?green? working and hiring virtually really is. I?ve always had it in the back of my mind, of course, but until I read more in-depth how we?re destroying our planet and what?s being done about it, I had a hard time relating the greenness of it all.

So what do we do to help the planet when we work and hire virtually?

Assuming you own a vehicle with a whopping 30mpg and your daily commute is 30 miles each way and you worked at a bricks-and-mortar office (or forced your administrative assistant to drive to a bricks-and mortar office each day) 5 days a week, you (or your assistant) would emit 9,860 pounds of carbon each into the atmosphere per year! So if you hire a virtual assistant, as well as work virtually yourself, you would SAVE an amazing 19,720 pounds of carbon emissions per year. Source: Stanford University?s emissions calculator: http://transportation.stanford.edu/alt_transportation/calculator.shtml. Be sure to stop by the website and calculate your carbon emissions.

While it?s hard to gauge exactly how much paper is used in a bricks-and-mortar office, what I can tell you is that our use of paper has gone down significantly since starting Team Double-Click?, a 100% virtual business. In the old days it was nothing to order as many as 10 cases (yes 50,000+ sheets of paper) in any given month. With a virtual business and by utilizing virtual assistants for 100% of the company?s work, we?re pushing a lot of paper if we use more than 2 reams (1,000) sheets a month. So again, working virtually wins: save on trees, save on carbon emissions caused by the processing and shipping of all those trees, which make all that paper.

If we?re using less paper; we?re using fewer ink toners and cartridges
What about the carbon footprint we leave when we eat all of that fast food when we eat out while working at a bricks-and-mortar office? One article http://openthefuture.com/cheeseburger_CF.html suggests that each of us, by eating three fast-food hamburgers per week, contributes to the emission of 1,188 to 2,013 pounds of carbon per year (this includes the energy used in the cooking of the burger as well as the commute to the burger joint). When you?re working virtually, you usually greatly reduce the number of times per week you eat out, thus reducing your carbon footprint once again. And you tend to use reusable containers instead of all those throw-aways.
Most of us who work virtually also utilize virtual fax and phone systems, which again reduce our carbon footprint through reduced electrical carbon costs as well as reduced paper usage.

If you have kids and you work in a bricks-and-mortar office (or if your assistant is forced to work in a bricks-and-mortar office) you?re contributing to greater emissions with all of those trips to pick up and drop off the kids at daycare.

While I couldn?t find any figures on the carbon footprint left from dry cleaning, we can safely assume it?s considerable. Working virtually significantly reduces the need for carbon-costly dry cleaning.
Think about the ?green? space we save by reducing the number of office buildings being put up.
We hear about green building (the use of reclaimed or recycled building materials) often, but what about totally eliminating the need for that new building. This act alone reduces the carbon footprint in materials-savings.

Let?s talk about the carbon-cost of powering a huge office space. Working virtually, you only have to power the room that you are working in Working virtually, you have the ability to choose green desks, packaging and materials And the most fun ?green? feature of working virtually is the envy of all of your bricks-and-mortar friends, family, and associates!

As you can see, working and hiring virtually makes a significant impact on the reduction of ozone-depleting greenhouse gasses and reduces your carbon footprint. Team Double-Click? and its staff (both internal and outsourced) have worked virtually since 2000 and are proud to contribute to a better planet for our children. If you?re interested in hiring or working virtually and helping the planet, be sure to visit us at www.teamdoubleclick.com.

For more information on working green, please visit http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/how_to_green_your_work.php#top10.

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the co-founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click?, the country?s foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 26,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients? growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing Yoga, reading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the family?s three dogs and two cats.

Team Double-Click?The original and still the best:? Team Double-Click?s thorough virtual assistant screening process, outstanding customer service, and innovative approach to virtual staffing has earned the company mentions and features in such esteemed media as Entrepreneur Magazine, Staff Digest, CNN Money, NBC News, and even Woman?s Day magazine.? Team Double-Click? is truly setting the standard for the virtual assistant industry.. To find out More about our virtual assistants and service click on following banner:

What can our virtuals do?

General:

• Enter your leads into your CRM (contact relationship management) program.
• Set/cancel/confirm appointments.
• Work with Excel spreadsheets to organize your leads and other data
• Work with MS Word to create mail merges and process mailings.
• Answer incoming calls
• Return phone calls on your behalf
• Type and send letters or contracts
• Make travel arrangements for you.
• Call for quotes for other services. (Any other services: rental cars, moving vans, tailoring, etc. hatever you may need at the time)
• Order services on your behalf
• Write business and task procedures for your business
• Write business manuals for your business
• Screen and answer the your emails
• Prepare newsletters for your clients
• Plan events or meetings
• Arrange and put together teleclasses, seminars or teleseminars
• Proof read your written materials
• Transcribe his or her meetings or speeches.
• Order books and CDs
• Schedule personal tasks such as car maintenance, vacation plans
• Personal concierge services such as ordering groceries, gifts, holiday gifts, birthday cards, etc.
• Arrange cook outs or meetings
• Mail outs such as postcards or letters for marketing purposes
• Preparation of manuals
• Record outgoing phone messages
• Record inbound call answering messages
• Post flyers on message boards
• Maintain Website & Updates (personal and other websites; Craig list)
• Check Voice Mail; Return calls
• Photos (edit and list on websites)
• Research
• Managing Your Virtual

No successful business owner can afford to micro-manage. If you need to micro-manage, you should find someone to sit right next to you in your office. If you can refrain from micro-managing and allow your admin to think and do on her own, you’ll have no problems managing her from a distance. Through proper candidate selection, proper training, clear and concise instructions, and the daily reporting mentioned earlier, there should be no serious problems.

And with Team Double-Click?, we do all of the screening, selection, and preliminary training so you and your virtual can hit the ground running. We don’t stop there, however. Each admin is assigned a Team Double-Click? manager who monitors her progress and communication with you. We step in when needed to correct mistakes and get you and the virtual back on the right track. And this doesn’t cost you a dime.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

Why is that though? It?s human nature to cut the ?extras? when business is rough. Marketing is usually out the window first because the bills are typically huge. Followed shortly by staff members that may be dead weight or not as good as they should be. And quite often, especially for small businesses, the owners decide there?s a lot more they can pick up and work on; things that the assistant used to do. There are a couple of great lessons here. There?s downsizing and there?s taking yourself out of the market.

Let?s first explore the idea of cutting off your marketing efforts in this down market. If you chuck your marketing, doesn?t that just cut off your nose to spite your face? A down market is precisely when you need marketing. If not for your marketing efforts, how will those few buyers in the market know about you when they?re ready? Maybe it?s time to look at some old fashioned guerrilla marketing tactics and free marketing. Yes, I said free. Of course we all need to spend some marketing dollars from time to time but what happened to all of the great free opportunities out there? Let?s explore some of them.

Article submissions. One of the greatest things about the ?net is that you can almost instantly become the expert in your market/community/area by writing and submitting articles. A quick search on the ?net will unearth dozens upon dozens of places to post your articles. Of course, that?s what I?m doing right here ? writing an article which my virtual assistant will post to as many free article submission sites as she can find. What does this do? It positions me as an expert. It sends links back to our company web site (thus increasing search engine rankings). It tells people we exist. It drives traffic (and hopefully customers) to our web site. It keeps our marketing alive and fresh. AND ? it doesn?t cost any more than my time to write the article and my virtual assistant?s time to post. Cheap!
Blogging. Wow, what a beautiful thing blogging is. Similarly to article submissions, blogging gives you a voice, makes you an expert, sends links back to your web site, and allows you to engage in conversations with potential customers. Another quick search on the ?net will unveil a hoard of free blogging sites.

Partnerships. In a down market, aligning yourself with complementary companies that can funnel business your way becomes paramount. Do me a favor; sit down and think of the products and services that compliment your business. Don?t look for specific companies just yet. Look for the kinds of products and services. Maybe they?re roofers (who may know that someone really needs to sell), maybe plumbers (who may also know who needs to sell or someone looking to buy), lenders, banks, and so on. Once you have this list together, find all of the companies who fit each category. In other words, find all of the plumbers in the area, all of the roofers, etc. Once you?ve got that list together, call them up and see how you can work together. Can they send referrals to you if you send referrals to them? Which of the plumbers can send you the most referrals? Then start setting up partnerships with these folks.

Co-Advertising. Are there complementary companies (such as the ones you found while seeking partnerships) whom you can work with to create and implement advertising pieces? Advertise both of your services in the same ad and cut advertising costs?

Teleseminars. Check your contacts both locally and nationally ? if you can be creative enough about your presentation topic, you can come up with dozens of things to discuss that others would like to hear about. Solicit your contacts for speaking engagements on teleseminars and plug your wares while you?re there. If you can?t get onto someone else?s teleseminar, do your own. They?re very inexpensive to produce (check out www.freeconferencecall.com) and you can invite your market area to the teleseminar to share some great bit of information. You?ll be the first person they turn to when they?re ready to buy. Try a teleseminar on ?improving the curb appeal of your home to get it sold more quickly? and I?ll bet you?ll have local sellers flocking to listen to you talk. Try ?getting the biggest bang for your buck in a buyer?s market? and the buyers will be knocking down your doors. Be sure to grab their contact information so you can use them as leads!
Radio and TV. Even local real estate companies and agents can position themselves as experts in their field with the local media. Send them your press releases, your articles, your information. Keep working to land a spot or two on the local news and you gain immediate credibility and recognition in your market.

Podcasts. Podcasts can work similarly to teleseminars in that you can solicit to be a guest on others? podcasts. However, you can also put up your own podcasts. Again, cheap, easy, and great lead generators. Check out www.talkshoe.com, which is a great, free podcasting site. Share similar information and think about topics similar to those we discussed for teleseminars.
These are just a few ideas for free (or almost) marketing that you can do even during a good market. But especially in times like these, you can focus on free and cheap marketing tactics without spiting your face. Be creative and I?ll bet you can think of dozens of others.

Firing your staff. They?re always the next to go after marketing. Sure, getting rid of dead, useless weight is always a good idea ? even when you?re prospering. But during lean times you need to be sure that you?re getting what you pay for from the help. What disturbs me, however, are comments I?ve heard recently like ?hired help is a luxury we cannot afford right now? and ?well, I?ll just do a little less selling and take over the administrative functions again? and then there?s ?I was an assistant once, I can surely do it again and save a few bucks.? Wrong, wrong, all wrong! I?ll tell you why.

The best place for you during lean times is out in front of clients and making money ? not setting up drip campaigns in the mailing software and directing phone calls. And how can you set up all of those referral partnerships if you?re preparing post cards for mailings?

So do get rid of those who aren?t helping your business ? that?s good advice even in the best of times. But keep those who are producing for you and who are making your job (selling and getting in front of partners) possible.

What about hiring a virtual assistant? Bricks and mortar produces huge wastes just by its nature: you pay for time you don?t use, you spend more on gasoline, as does your assistant, you pay rent (or a mortgage), you heat the place, and you electrify it, and so on. Have you considered going virtual? Believe me, it can be done. We were once a bricks and mortar business in a previous enterprise. But after going virtual, we?d never go back. Think about it: you only pay for what you use, you don?t pay rent, you don?t have to heat the office, you don?t have to provide desks and computers. You save tons! One of our virtual staffing clients, Jo Ellen Nash, recently said, ?Having virtual assistants handle the majority of my administrative paperwork (and me!) has cut over $100,000 from my payroll and given me better skills and talents, better accountability, better organization and better stability in working from two locations, now in Vail, Colorado AND (as of April this year) Naples, Florida!? Check it out ? you can downsize without downsizing how much your company accomplishes. If you need to downsize, do it smartly ? keep the staff that?s working well and replace the others with virtual assistants.

As this down market cycles through and works itself out, please, don?t let your marketing fall to the wayside and don?t downsize what your company accomplishes! Just go about it a little differently.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

What’s really most important when hiring a virtual assistant is doing your due-diligence before you make the hire. Just like anyone else, virtual assistants come with their own personality, life issues, and family situations. Making sure they mesh with what you need are paramount to ensuring smooth sailing after you’ve finally agreed to work with the VA.

Virtual Houdini – The Virtual Assistant Disappearing Act

Yes, it can happen. Back when you worked in the retro bricks-and-mortar world, how often did someone simply not show up for work? They quit, right? Unfortunately this can happen with virtual assistants as well. Perhaps not as often as in the bricks-and-mortar world but it does happen.

Why do virtual assistants quit, disappear, move on? The same reasons they quit, disappear, and move on in the bricks-and-mortar world. Maybe they needed more money. Maybe they became ill and could no longer work. Maybe a better offer came along. Maybe they didn’t like the work.

You can’t entirely avoid the situation itself but there are things you can do to minimize the damage if and when it does. Protecting yourself ahead of time for when it does and realizing that it could happen is your best defense.

Online files. Not only does putting your files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) online facilitate working virtually, but it also protects you if and when a virtual assistant leaves. Simply change the passwords then she’s locked out and you don’t lose any files or have to go hunting them down. Check out www.xdrive.com or speak with your web site administrator about putting your files up via ftp.

Pay withholding. Why not put something in your contract with the virtual assistant that says you reserve the right to withhold pay until work files are returned?
Passwords. As soon as a virtual worker leaves or is let go, remember to change your passwords on everything he or she had access to!

What I Say Versus What I Can Do

Would you hire someone to watch your children just because they say they’re capable of doing so? I didn’t think so. Then why would you hire a virtual assistant (or anyone for that matter) without first finding out what they can do and if they can do what they say they can do? I recommend several steps be taken to test a new virtual assistant contractor before contracting with them. These steps are modeled after our own company’s interviewing process, which has evolved over the years. It’s a lot of work on your part but very worthwhile. If you don’t want to take all of these steps then look for a good virtual staffing agency, like Team Double-Click? who does all of the work for you.

However, be absolutely sure that you send the virtual assistant a 1099 Miscellaneous Income tax form (in lieu of a W2, which employees only receive) each year.

Job posting. In your case you’ll either need to make a posting on a job board, such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, or Craig’s List. Or you can search those boards for virtual assistants looking for work.

Typing test. You want to know your new virtual assistant can type …accurately, right? Send him or her to www.typingtest.com and ask for the results back. Look for a high level of accuracy coupled with high speed.

Computer skills test. Again, you want to know your virtual assistant can use Word and Excel. Send her to www.expertrating.com, ask her to take the free Word and Excel (and any others you want to know about) tests and send you the scores.

First interview. Agree on a time and date for the first telephone interview. Then give the potential virtual assistant your number and have her call you. Have your questions ready. Did she show up on time? Did she answer your questions to your satisfaction? Do her skills still fit?

Work personality. You simply must know if the person you are about to contract is honest, has a high level of integrity, is a team player, and so on. We recommend www.totaltesting.com, where you can ask the potential virtual assistant to take such a test. Now this one costs a few bucks. It’s up to you whether you want to pay for it or require the virtual assistant to pay for it. Just remember – if you ask her to pay for it and you don’t hire her she’s not going to be a happy camper.

Second Interview. The cool thing about Total Testing’s work personality tests is that they give you another set of questions to ask the candidate during a second interview. Have a friend, spouse, or colleague interview this person the second time. Compare notes. How does each of you feel about this person? Will she work out?

Contract. If you’re ready to contract this person it’s time to pull out the non-compete, non-disclosure contract we discussed in the last article. Send it to the virtual assistant for review and signing. Be absolutely sure this is signed before putting him or her to work.
EIN and W9. We also discussed, in the last article, requiring the contractor to obtain a (free) EIN (employer identification number) to further protect you from possible employer/employee claims later on down the road. Now’s the time to ask for this, along with a completed W9 form.
This is the abbreviated version of our process. We throw in a few things like setting up a company email account, and we have a review process, which each virtual assistant goes through. A team of three HR pros discuss each candidate and determine if a contract will be offered. Because we’re a staffing agency, your screening process will look a little different from ours.

Give Me All You Got

Never send a virtual worker a ton of materials (letterheads, envelopes, brochures, etc.). It’s just a safeguard. While it is very rare that someone would leave and not return those materials to you, if they did, how much money would you have tied up in replacing all of those expensive printed materials? It’s just better not to do it in the first place. Send a virtual worker slightly more than what they need to perform the task at hand.

The Five Finger Discount – Identity Theft/Credit Card Number Theft

One of our clients’ biggest concerns has always been identity theft and credit card number theft. In all the years we’ve been staffing virtually, we’ve never seen this happen. It may be that the work personality profile is weeding out the people who might be tempted and our HR department is further ferreting out those who are less-than-desirable, but the other half of it is the contractor mentality of a virtual assistant as opposed to the employee mentality of an …employee!

You can minimize your risk by not giving out your credit card information to a virtual assistant. If you need to give the virtual assistant a credit card number for ordering products or services on your behalf, get a separate card that is used for nothing but items the virtual assistant orders for you. It’s much easier to check over your bill for erroneous charges this way.

Hours Availability

When hiring a virtual assistant, not only do you need to make sure their skills and abilities mesh with you and your business, but you must also be sure the virtual assistant has enough time to take care of your needs. Very simply ask the potential virtual assistant how many other clients she has, how many hours per week she is working, and how many hours she has to devote to you. Does it work with what you need? If not, move on.

The Rate

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never bought something without first knowing what it was going to cost. Important questions to ask before contracting a virtual assistant:

What is the rate per hour?
Are there different rates for different tasks?
If so what are they?
Do you round to the nearest hour or the nearest minute? To the nearest minute is the most desirable.
Is there a start up fee?
If so, how much?
Is there a termination fee?
If so, how much?
Is there a minimum usage?
If so, how much?

Can you work within my budget? In other words, if I can only afford 10 hours per week, what happens when you’ve reached 10 hours? How is that handled?

What are your future plans? How long do you intend to be a virtual assistant? Is this a career for you or a short-term venture for some extra cash?

My philosophy when hiring anyone, virtual assistants included, is to hire slowly and fire quickly. Trust your gut. If you don’t feel that a virtual assistant is working out, let her go immediately and don’t look back. Your gut is probably right. But do take your time hiring. Go through the paces to determine if he or she is the best fit for YOU; it’ll minimize the risk that he or she won’t work out for you later.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

Unfortunately, as the industry grows and as more and more people ?think? they can be virtual assistants; bad apples are bound to pop up. Our company alone has seen an increase from 500 VAs in 2003 to 18,000+ currently and growing at a rate of about 200 per week. So let?s talk about the pitfalls and how you can avoid them and protect yourself.

But, But, But, I Must Be An Employee!

If you?ve only heard one thing about virtual assistants and the benefits of hiring them it is that they are supposed to be independent contractors. I recently read a blog post that claimed that ?eventually companies would be required to bring virtual assistants on as employees rather than independent contractors.? I just had to laugh! How in the world can someone who self-directs how they do the work be considered an employee? And as a business owner you don?t want employees. That?s why you hired or are considering hiring a virtual assistant in the first place. You didn?t want the employee ?I want? and ?I deserve? mentality.

I disagree 100% with the opinion of the blog post that claimed virtual assistants will need to be employees. There?s no need for them to be employees. Here are some of the items that you and I, as consumers, need to do to ensure that we set virtual assistants up so we are NOT ever required to set them up as employees.

W9. When you contract a virtual assistant, always ask that they complete a W9 (tax reporting form) and send it to your company BEFORE he or she begins working. This form will give you the virtual assistant?s social security number or EIN number and information for tax reporting purposes.
EIN a.k.a. Employee Identification Number a.k.a. Federal ID number. As an added line of defense, you should ask every virtual assistant or contractor you hire to obtain an EIN from the government. This number alone shows that they are operating as their own entity and not as an employee of your company. They may be Jane Doe d.b.a. Jane Doe Virtual Assistants but it strengthens the argument that they are not employees but rather entities in and of themselves and will keep you out of hot water with the state?s departments for employee relations. The virtual assistant can obtain an EIN online in about 5 minutes and it?s free.
Contract. Anyone and everyone who hires a virtual assistant must have a contract executed between your company and the VA. The contract should spell out the relationship (that of a contractor and not an employee), the duties (what will she be doing for you and what will you do for her), the rate of pay (what are you going to pay him), where are any arising court battles fought, and so on.
Oh Tax Man!

Because a virtual assistant is set up as an independent contractor, you do not need to withhold state or federal taxes, 401(k), Medicare, FICA, or any other employee-related acronym. As an independent contractor, a business entity of their own, it is up to the virtual assistant to obtain his or her own retirement plan, medical insurance, file quarterly and yearly taxes, etc.

However, be absolutely sure that you send the virtual assistant a 1099 Miscellaneous Income tax form (in lieu of a W2, which employees only receive) each year.

Shhhhh?Don?t Tell!

The last thing you want to happen is for a virtual assistant to walk away with your company?s important information if the relationship turns south. It is absolutely imperative that you have your attorney design a non-compete/non-disclosure agreement and then make sure your virtual assistant signs and returns the agreement before beginning any work for your company.

In my next article, Avoiding Virtual Assistant Performance Pitfalls, we?ll go over the things you need to be aware of and look for in the virtual assistant while hiring ? the non-regulatory things.

About the author:

Note: Please look for another article in this series titled ?Avoiding Virtual Assistant Performance Pitfalls?.

Gayle Buske is the founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click?, the country?s foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 18,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients? growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing Yoga, reading, off-roading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the family?s three dogs and two cats.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner:

The impact on workers, with gas prices like we’re seeing now, can make working unaffordable. Consider an $8.50 per hour convenience store attendant or fast food worker that must drive a short 20 miles to work and back. With a vehicle that gets even 30 miles per gallon, it costs him or her $3.99 to $4.65 to work. And that doesn’t include a wardrobe, or daycare. If the worker is working 5 days a week, it costs him or her $19.95 – $23.25 for the week. That’s almost 7% of that worker’s pre-tax income in gasoline.

One visitor on an Internet forum says, “Today was a shocker, $41 to fill my Honda Accord. Something’s gotta give somewhere. Unfortunately to make a decent wage I have to drive 50 miles round trip to work and back. Carpooling has not been an option that worked easily for me, but I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to find a way or start discussions about working from home 1 or 2 days a week.”

Another Internet forum poster says, “Honestly the prices of gas already forced me to quit one job due to the distance traveled to go to it.”

This article isn’t meant to be a rant on gas prices. It’s all supply and demand and that’s the beauty of living in America where we enjoy a free enterprise system. The figures and quotes above are meant only for illustration purposes and to show what can happen to workers and their employers when the price of just one commonly-consumed product is jacked up.

So, it becomes unaffordable for workers to work. What does that do to the business owner who hires the workers? If a worker can’t afford to work, he or she might just decide not to work at all, as one person mentioned above. The business owner then has no staff or a reduced staff. The business owner could give the worker a raise to compensate for the higher cost of working. But that would mean passing on higher costs to his clients and so on.

Doesn’t it make more sense then to work and hire virtually? If you omit the need for the worker to commute, you omit the need to increase his or her pay. You omit the worker shortage. By working and hiring virtually, you can now seek workers in any part of the country, without regard to how much that commute is going to cost the worker.

As an added bonus, by hiring a virtual assistant, you now don’t need to raise the price to your customers. And remember, you don’t need to buy your assistant a desk and a computer nor do you need to provide her with heat and electricity. Isn’t that a great way to beat out your competition, by having lower labor costs?

With fuel costs at an all time high, and the trickle down effect this creates, like increased clothing prices, increased food costs, etc. (all of these items are shipped on the back of an 18-wheeler, which also consumes fuel), there’s no better time to look at hiring a virtual assistant. It’s probably even a good time for you to look at how you may be able to work virtually too!

About the author:
Gayle Buske is the founder, president and CEO of Team Double-Click?, the country?s foremost virtual staffing agency. As the head of a virtual staffing agency with over 18,000 virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to aid clients? growth through virtual outsourcing as well as speak to the ins and outs of the industry. Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband, business and life partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, Yoga, reading, hiking, flower gardening, and playing with the family?s three dogs and two cats.

Less physical storage space necessary – save on file cabinets, paper, and folders

Locating files becomes more efficient – it’s as easy as “edit” “find”

Paperless, or electronic storage, is more cost-effective than printing everything and storing it on paper copy – electronic storage space is cheap!

The “ink” on an electronic copy of that important whatever won’t eventually fade like a paper copy will

Files are more easily transferred from your archives to an associate who may need to see it

You don’t need to pay an assistant to constantly do your filing for you. With electronic storage, it’s a snap to quickly “save as” into the appropriate folder on your hard drive

Of course, there can be some disadvantages to going paperless too:

Because electronic media is susceptible to power surges, scratches, and the like, there is a risk of losing that data

You MUST remember to back up your disc drives and keep a copy of that data in a safe place – off premises preferably

You’ll likely have to do your own filing unless you want your assistant to access your computer

Even if you’ve been a long-time packrat of paper files, there’s no reason you can’t start going paperless now. Start by making a conscious decision NOT to continue printing and filing everything that comes across your desk. Just as you would keep your paper files organized by setting up folders for various topics, do the same for your electronic files by creating folders in Microsoft Explorer

Depending on your filing system, set up folders for things such as “Clients”, “Prospects”, “Form Files”, “General Information”, etc. Within those folders are more folders. For example, your “Clients” folder should contain a folder for each client. Your “Prospects” folder should contain a folder for each prospective client and so on. Then, when that prospect becomes a client, you can simply drag his or her folder over to your “Clients” folder

Save all files that seem important.

Before the virtual world, business people were conveniently divided into 2 categories: filers and pilers. Filers kept things that they thought they might need, but dumped the rest. They could fill up a wastebasket of paper in half a day. Pilers, on the other hand, saved everything. Their wastebasket was for decorative purposes only. They’d save the most trivial of things “just in case”.

The virtual world has ended this distinction. Now, you can (and should) be both.

For the Pilers:

Keep all of your files; or most of them. Just create more folders to store them in. If you require more hard drive space, just go out and get it. Hard drive space is ridiculously cheap compared to even a decade ago.

For the Filers:

As soon as you’ve received or created a new file, save it to the appropriate folder. Naming your files appropriately will facilitate retrieving those files easily later on. Your filing system should first and foremost be one that you can understand and easily remember – it should make sense to you. When you name your files use as many characters as you need in the file name so you can search on a portion of that name later. It should give a good, but brief, description of what the document pertains to. Most people have used Windows Explorer’s search feature. If not, practice with it until you can easily locate your files. It’s a pretty powerful tool and very user-friendly.

There are a few other tools that will help you with your goal of going paperless:

eFax (http://www.efax.com) is what we use here. For a nominal monthly charge, all of your incoming faxes will come to you by way of email. Yep, they’re dumped right into your inbox as an attached picture file.

Adobe Acrobat (the full version – not reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html) allows you to take almost any file, select the “print” option, and print to the Acrobat Distiller. This will turn the document into a .pdf file. A very easily transportable and easy-to-file file type, almost anyone can read a .pdf file. This makes sending your documents (and protecting them) a breeze. As a side note, when I receive an eFax document, because the file type isn’t so universal, I print from my eFax viewer to my Acrobat distiller, making the fax into a .pdf file. I then file the .pdf version, making it more transportable and viewable.

Scanners are another tool that is indispensable in the paperless world. Virtually any piece of paper or photo that you receive can be scanned and made into an electronic picture file. After you’ve created that picture file, you can email it to anyone you’d like as well as store it in your electronic files on your hard drive

LapLink Everywhere http://www.laplink.com/products/lle/overview.asp can facilitate having your virtual assistant do your electronic filing for you. It includes remote desktop search from any Web-enabled device (powered by Google Desktop Search) Laplink Everywhere lets you choose how you want to work and which device with internet access you want to use to access your PC. It?s easy and fast to set-up and simple to use

LapLink ShareDirect http://www.laplink.com/products/sharedirect/overview.asp is another great tool for going paperless. It allows instant sharing any folder on your PC with one or thousands of users, without ever having to change or manage your Internet, firewall, or router configurations. And it is 256-bit encrypted.

Hopefully you can see how going paperless can benefit almost any company or individual. The cost savings alone are enormous; reducing the amount of paper, ink, and folders you need to purchase.

Team Double-Click? provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. Visit Team Double-Click?s Web site at http://www.teamdoubleclick.com or click on the banner: